Do mobile apps improve customer service? The proof is in the pudding for on-the-go technology.

Do mobile apps improve customer service? If you own a smartphone you probably already know the answer to this question. If you pay any of your bills with a mobile app, shop online through a mobile app, or access your bank account with a mobile app, you are likely reaping the benefits of a more efficient and enjoyable customer service experience with that particular company thanks to mobile app development.

A well-developed mobile app has the ability to:

• Increase customer retention by drastically reducing some of the most common service-related problems your customers may be experiencing. These problems include lagging response time, unanswered questions, unresolved issues, and cumbersome processes – the kinds of problems that lead to customer dissatisfaction and departure.
• Boost existing customer activity and sales with mobile app marketing features such as notifications and alerts about upcoming sales, new products or services, or customer loyalty rewards. Let’s also not forget the marketing power of simply having your company’s logo sitting on the home screen of every customer’s mobile device, beckoning them to engage with your business.
• Attract new customers with word-of-mouth praise for the sophistication, convenience, and impressive functionality of your business’s mobile app technology.

Check out our interview with Marc Stickdorn for more on how to design your business with service in mind.

More and more businesses are catching on to the numerous benefits that mobile apps can provide to both their customers and themselves. Due to their increasing availability and desirability, mobile apps are actually starting to become somewhat of an expectation rather than a perk. In those industries where mobile apps have really taken hold, companies that don’t offer this technology risk falling behind their competitors or even becoming obsolete.

You would be hard-pressed to find a major bank, retailer, or mobile service provider that doesn’t offer a mobile app to their customers. That’s because mobile apps have become such an integral part of customer service success for those industries.

The examples mentioned above are just a small fraction of the industries that have begun taking advantage of mobile app technology. Nowadays it seems we can do just about anything using a mobile application: From checking into a hospital emergency room, to making a restaurant or hotel reservation, hailing a cab, ordering a refill on your prescription, or even buying coffee!

The sudden emergence of all this mobile app technology is no coincidence. When done right, mobile app development is extremely empowering for both a business and its customers. Read on to find out why.

How do mobile apps improve customer service and increase business success?

• Improved response time: With features such as live chat or tap-of-the-app, self-service functions for scheduling or making reservations, customers can connect with someone from your business more quickly and easily, and get results faster.
• Personalized experience: Customer profiles containing key information, activity tracking, real-time notifications and status updates – these are just a few of the ways mobile apps can make your customers feel like they are always plugged in and never forgotten. They are never left with unanswered questions or overdue status updates.
• On-the-fly efficiency and convenience: Mobile app development can give users all the functionality of a website application and more, while eliminating many of the steps, clicks, and searches that can make websites less efficient and more cumbersome for mobile use. Mobile apps are structured to give your clients all the features they need in a way that makes their use of those features feel effortless. This ease of use empowers your customers to interact with your business whenever and wherever they are.

Still not sure if it’s worth the trouble? Take a look at our findings in Improving Customer Experience: Show Us the Money, where we explain the following:

• In the transaction-based business, customers reporting the best experiences spend 140% more than those who had the poorest quality interactions.
• In the subscription-based business, where the value is in customer longevity, members with the worst experiences will stay about a year. Members with the best experiences will likely stay another six years.

So back to the original question, do mobile apps improve customer service? With an experienced team of developers utilizing the right software development process, the answer is a resounding YES, they absolutely can.

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Thinking about improving customer experience with mobile app development? We invite you to schedule a free consultation with one of our mobile app experts.

Check out our free ebook for some real examples of failed software projects (and how not to make the same mistakes).